Here is something to think about. When I'm invited to a gathering/meal, I know it is not to leave w/my belly as full as I can get it. It is to visit, see people, catch up, share, it's not for nourishment or for a free meal. Most people can be happy w/just a little bit(if there is nothing they really like). I see it as being rude to disapprove of a meal GIVEN to you. It is more polite to eat respectively as it is a gift that they put alot of love and work into.

Maybe I'm get'n off topic.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Al, and I don't think it's off topic at all. I personally think that "picky eaters" in general are on a rude power play....and I just don't play that game. They love to have attention brought to themselves in my experience, therefore they are not invited to partake in my cooking. Simple.

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__________________Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but rather by the moments that take our breath away.

my husband was the hardest and picky's person to cook for. well done (cremated) beef. and fried chicken. no fish, sea food, . only ate corn and green vegs, both plain. loved potatoes no rice, bulgar, etc. made me crazy. he is gone now and would gladly cook anything he wanted , in order to just have a meal with him again.

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"life isn't about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain"

my husband was the hardest and picky's person to cook for. well done (cremated) beef. and fried chicken. no fish, sea food, . only ate corn and green vegs, both plain. loved potatoes no rice, bulgar, etc. made me crazy. he is gone now and would gladly cook anything he wanted , in order to just have a meal with him again.

... I personally think that "picky eaters" in general are on a rude power play...

I'm not sure that's the case. Individuals who make a dramatic event out of it at the dinner table want to draw attention to themselves but I think they are in the minority.

Most food dislikes develop during childhood where new tastes and textures are introduced frequently. If a mom cooked bland foods and hated onions, there's a good chance that will be instilled in the child. Not always but often.

My SIL dislikes a lot of stuff I use on a regular basis but never makes a stink over it. He just doesn't eat an item or picks out the stuff he dislikes. He has tried to like stuff but some things are just beyond him.

I don't like it but accept it. He's always welcome in our home.

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"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan

For me I guess my ex. No sauce on spaghetti only butter and parm. Made a fuss when I made sauce for me. Only white/steamed rice and that had to have sugar on it. Same with cottage cheese. Had to have sugar on it.
Fried anything was fine as long as it was "normal". Chicken,pork chops, etc. Not real big on sausages unless it was breakfast. No Mexican food. No Chinese food. No Italian unless it was as I said the spaghetti was done. The only veg. was corn, and green beans.
My family always had me at least try everything once. If I didn't like it, that was okay, at least I tried. Some things that I didn't like then, I do now. My tastes change all the time. Some of the TNT still stick with me. Some didn't.
The best part of all of that with the ex was as I was learning to cook as a late teen and early 20s woman. In later times, I went to culinary arts schools and traveled the world. YUM! Now with a new palate and new husband, of almost 20 years, things are much better.

Won't eat onions, mushrooms, olives, lamb, any meat that has a hint of pink or twice-baked potatoes because they look 'suspicious'. I'm sure there's more but that's all I've run into so far.

Haha that's funny...I wonder how his face looks like every time there's some 'suspicious' food served.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckytom

my parents.

i never knew how picky they were about certain ingredients until i started to cook for them as they got older.

the first time i tried was when my mom broke her arm a few years ago. i went to their house to cook a couple of meals to give her a break (my dad knows there's a room in the house called a kitchen, and that food goes in raw and comes out of there cooked, but that's about it, lol).

i proceeded to cook one of dw's recipes, lemon mushroom chicken, and one of my faves since they live near the beach, calamari and scungilli marinara.

i found out that mom hates mushrooms, and neither will each squid or conch.

now i ask first if they'd eat things before i plan on making them.

really? wow. how come you never learned about the food they didn't like while you were growing? like of course your mom will not cook food with mushrooms if she doesn't like it..

In my case, I would try to cook food that I know my guests will like since I invited them to come over and visit I feel it's my obligation to serve what interests them or what they like..

My DH is the pickiest person, ever. So I cook for myself and make sure he has plenty of burgers and hotdogs. Of course I always offer what I have fixed for myself and on rare occasions he will try it and is always surprised when he likes it. Sometimes I just don't tell him what I put in something, knowing he won't touch it if he knows of specific ingredients.

I sliced strawberries and added a bit of sugar to them, allowing them to macerate. I got my own bowl and added a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream...it was heaven. I told him it tasted horrible and then he had to try it...he was shocked to find out about the sour cream and later had a bowl of his own.

Haha that's funny...I wonder how his face looks like every time there's some 'suspicious' food served.

really? wow. how come you never learned about the food they didn't like while you were growing? like of course your mom will not cook food with mushrooms if she doesn't like it..

lol, as an adult in one of the grestest foodie cities in the world, my tastes grew well beyond the meals that my mom had made for us as kids. that's not to disparage my mom's cooking in any way whatsoever. her simple and hearty meals gave me my love for eating and cooking as a start. i couldn't owe her more for what she's given me, and a love for food is the just one of the many things.

in any case, i was clumsily trying to make something that would be new to them, and a tnt to me so that it would be good. it was a surprise to hear they never liked something since they never complain about anything.

even with the meals i made, they politely choked down the food so that i wouldn't be terribly disappointed in my failure. now THAT's the kind of attitude that displays grace and intelligence. very unlike the "too bad if you're my guest, you'll eat my slop or go hungry" kind of thing.

you know, i just realized that these sentiments seem appropriate with mama's day coming this sunday.

happy mother's day to all of the moms out there who have done for your children what mine did for me.

My step-mother. In fact, I've never cooked for her in the 16 years she's been married to my father.

In her case, it's probably an undiagnosed mental illness. Kind of hard to explain. Basically, she will only eat fast food because it's wrapped in paper. She literally (without exception) eats fast food for dinner every.single.night. She won't eat with metal utensils... only plastic utensils that have been factory wrapped, and she won't eat off of anything but disposable plates that have never been used. That means she won't eat at a sit down restaurant and she won't eat food that anyone cooks on a stove or in an oven. She will only eat fast food and microwaved food that is prepared using plastic and served on paper plates. She has been this way all of her life (according to my father). So, her diet consists of hamburgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, hot dogs, Dr. Pepper, soups you can heat in the microwave and vegetables you can steam in the bag (this is new for her, actually, as they are a newer invention), processed cheese that is individually wrapped, deli meats and individually packaged processed foods. She won't eat steak, fish, most vegetables, any fruit except banana, no dairy... well, you get the point.

I guess, according to what my dad says, that it has to do with sanitation. I once asked him in private if she understands the sanitation practices in fast food (I once managed a McDonald's in college) and he told me that I could never talk about that.

So... she is definitely the pickiest eater I've ever met.

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Life is too short to eat processed, artificially-colored, chemically-preserved, genetically-modified food. Or maybe that IS why life's too short.